360 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



frame. If a queen lays six eggs in a minute, 

 360 an hour, 3600 in 10 hours, why does she 

 not lay 8640 in 24 hours and 181,440 in 21 

 days? Will Mr. Dadant tell us? An eleven- 

 frame Quinby hive would be as poor for any 

 queen laying at the rate of 360 eggs an hour, 

 right along, as Bro. D. tries to make out that 

 the nine-frame Gallup is for the average queen. 

 But all of this figuring regarding how many 

 eggs a queen can lay, and then basing the size 

 of the brood-chamber on such egg-laying pow- 

 ers, amounts to very little. The proposition 

 before the practical apiarist is not how many 

 eggs a queen can lay, but ivhat size of brood- 

 chamber will give me the best results in surplus 

 comb honey ? And how can this point be as- 

 certained ? Very largely through the average 

 yields during the past, where reports have 

 been given by those using the large frames in 

 a large hive without any contraction, and 

 those using small hives, or large frames with 

 contraction. Bro. Dadant gives an instance 

 where a colony in a large hive gave him 160 

 lbs. of comb honey which he sold at 27 cents 

 a pound, the result from which would be $43. 20. 

 In back volumes of the bee-papers can be 

 found my report of a colony having but nine 

 Gallup frames which gave 309 lbs. of section 

 honev, and plenty in the hive for winter. 

 This "honey was sold for 25 cents per pound, 

 the result from which was §77.25. Does this 

 not show that the "proof of the pudding" 

 lies with the small hive? But I hear some one 

 saying that "one swallow does not make a 

 summer." Very good. Bro. D. says his 

 neighbor called him a "braggart" because he 

 claimed that his bees gathered 100 lbs. or more 

 per colony. And some of my bee-keeping 

 neighbors would not believe that a whole api- 

 ary gave an average yield of 166%, nearly all 

 of which was section honey, till they came 

 and saw my shop so crowded with beautiful 

 combs of honey that the floor had to be prop- 

 ped to keep it from breaking down, when I 

 used a hive only about two-thirds in size of 

 brood-chamber as compared with theirs. But 

 leaving Bro. Dadant and myself ' ' out of the 

 race," who have given the best reports during 

 the past— those using the large frames and 

 hives without contraction, or those using the 

 small hives or the contraction plan ? I have 

 been a careful reader of our bee-papers during 

 the past thirty years; and, unless I have read 

 in vain, the majority of the good to large 

 yields of comb-honey reports have come from 

 those using small hives, or those contracting 

 the brood-chamber during the honey-flow 

 down to that used by those recommending 

 small hives. It was just these reports that 

 caused me, unwillingly, to cut my twelve- 

 frame Gallup hive down to a nine-frame hive. 

 If the large hives are so much better than the 

 small, it seems to me it is about time they 

 showed their superiority by giving better aver- 

 age reports than the small ones; and until they 

 do, I shall feel that I am excusable in keeping 

 on in the beaten path of success; and trying 

 to make it appear that Doolittle " is always 

 watching his sixty hives " when my colonies 

 have been numbering from 120 to 200 each 

 year since father's death, does not add any- 



thing toward the large-hive side. During the 

 five years I lifted and cared for father, every 

 time he was moved at all, I had to let my num- 

 bers go down to what I could care for, and 

 care for father too, and the 60 would be about 

 right for those years. 



Then I see that better wintering comes in as 

 a recommendation for the large hive. But the 

 one who is familiar with the past knows that 

 whole apiaries, where the large hives and 

 frames w r ere used, have been swept away by 

 " our wintering troubles," and the proprietors 

 gone out and bought bees, which wintered in 

 box hives, to stock up with again. 



That report, dated Feb. 15, reading, "We 

 have just had a good day for the bees. The 

 colonies are strong. There is next to no loss," 

 fitted my case exactly at that time, except the 

 " we have just had a good day for the bees." 

 My bees had their last flight Nov. 10, 1898 ; 

 and after that there was not a single "good 

 day for the bees" till April 12, 1899, and col- 

 onies that were strong and fine Feb. 15 were 

 so loaded with excrement on April 12 that 

 their strength and vitality were not sufficient 

 to fly to void it, the result of which is that 

 eight out of the seventeen colonies wintered 

 out are " little good," while nine are from fair 

 to strong. 



I have never been able to understand why 

 those living in a locality where bees can fly 

 every four to six weeks should begin to tell of 

 their losses after three or four weeks of cold 

 weather, when our bees have to hold out dur- 

 ing three to five months' steady confinement, 

 with the mercury often down from 5 to 25 de- 

 grees below zero for days at a time; and as 

 they more often come through such winters in 

 good condition than otherwise, in the nine- 

 frame Gallup hive, I may be excusable for 

 thinking that the size of the brood-chamber 

 has little to do with the wintering of bees. If 

 I lived where bees could fly once in six weeks 

 I am sure I should feel as Bro. Dadant does, 

 that "the bees were not as healthy in the 

 spring ' ' when wintered in the cellar, as those 

 wintered on their summer stands. 



Some of this may be considered as a "ram- 

 ble," for I have not stuck very closely to the 

 question My excuse is, that, after I received 

 the question, I read Bro. Dadant's article over 

 a second time, so allowed a few thoughts on it 

 to come in, outside of what the questioner 

 really expected from me. 



Borodino, N. Y., April 14. 



[Now look out for the Dadants. — Ed.] 



WE 



ssasmk 



fjS^iw^m^Mm* 



OUTLOOK FOR FLORIDA. 

 The outlook for honey in West Florida is 

 not very promising. Just as the titi bloom 

 was opening it was destroyed by the zero 

 freeze. The Le Conte pear-trees were in 

 bud, which was turned brown, and fell off. 



